Hello:
Over the years I have seen adult men chew out pullers. To be honest, I have never seen a woman shooter chew out a puller. I am sure they have, but I personally have not seen them do it. I once saw a former All American shooter go bezerk with a male puller at the Grand American in Ohio. He had a large crowd watching him shoot and the puller was slow pulling him, and he lost two targets.

After his display of anger, let's just say the crowd watching him got smaller. Nowadays, with voice activated traps, I believe there is less reasons to get upset with the pullers. I did see a puller get upset at the state shoot this year when the puller had a friend talking to him while he was scoring though.

At some of the smaller clubs they still have the pullers actually releasing the target. I once saw an adult male putting the fear of God into a shooter so he could get a target scored as broken, instead of it scored as a lost target, as he said that he played all the money and he was not going to allow a puller to lose him money.

I believe all shooters, ATA, league, practice shooters should spend sometime loading the house, and pulling and scoring. I feel there would be a new appreciation for these young men and women. Sometime consider treating a puller to a soda or possibly give them a tip. I guarantee that you will most likely feel better, and you just might get better targets to shoot at.

Have any of you ever seen a shooter go off on the help? Did you say anything to the shooter?

First off you have some shooters who think they are GOD, THEY ARE THE BEST THINGS TO COME TO ATRAP FIELD. In other words they are one big SNOB. I will have to say is that they need to be cut off at the knee's and fast if they do something like that.

I have turned around to some scorers and smiled and said " your doing a geat job but would you please speak up for us people who don't hear as well as we use to"? They would smile and then were alittle bit louder in their calls.

Being a shooter & a scorekeeper for 40+ yrs. I can sympathize with both groups, given that I'm hearing impaired (too many yrs.around skilsaws--routers--etc.) those with soft or short or high pitched calls are hard for me to hear if we are on manual pull cords, so sometimes they get less than good pulls. I do try but I also wear ear plugs (trying to save what I have). Very rarely had anyone get upset they just say they will try to call louder. When I'm the shooter I try to treat the scorekeepers as I would like to be treated, NOBODY'S perfect, & very few of us are making our living at shooting. In fact those that are good enough to make a living shooting are usually the most considerate. Just my own experience.--Ross Puls

I agree with all of you that have responded so far. There is no need to yell at a puller. I recently tried pulling and I was slow. I can't imagine pulling for doubles and scoring too. I asked a teenage puller recently how the shooters treated him? He said the majority treated him well. He said there were a couple of shooters who always complain about anything and everything. I asked him have you ever had any shooters yell at you? He said no, but some shooters blame him if they don't have a good round, complaining about the targets etc. We are the adults, we need to show an example.
Steve

While I haven't yelled at scorekeepers(hard to keep calling them pullers),I have on occaision lost my cool. I shoot lead off and many times have had to call twice to see a target because the kids are turning the buttons on the Canterburys off and not turning them back on until I call pull. My next option is to quit shooting lead.

I totally agree, I am the trap chairman aka guy that drew the short straw and the pullers at the club will let you know if you arent load enough.. Now I have had folks grumbling on the line and I asked if there was something that could be done to improve generally I get the "no we are good" and just ask the folks to speak up when they call for the bird..

Also remember that they are also wearing hearing protection ( required at the club) so they may have a hard time hearing you.. WHEN YOU ARE ON THE LINE SPEAK UP...!!

I myself have helped the pullers score and reload targets and in the winter time its no fun and a thankless job; I have also bough my help breakfast..

We all were lined up ready to shoot. I was on station 5 and a field worker kid just walked right through the line not asking if we were unloaded or not. I for one had a shell in the gun but the gun was open. I unloaded the gun as the kid kept walking. When the kid was half way to the traphouse I called for a target with a loud call. The target came out and he heard the call. He jumped straight up and turned around in one move. You didn't have to ask him what he said because you could read his lip's just fine. We all laughed out load which pissed the kid off even more. I just hope it taught him a good lessen on safety. HE HE HE. I have not seen anyone else do that after that in any club.

I agree with Gene. a close second is letting you empties hit the ground so someone beneath your social standing can pick up after you. If a club is gracious to host a shoot for us the least we can do is good sports. Just my $.02

I can't imagine being in the shoes of these kids pulling trap for some of the ***holes who show up. I pulled for some sporting clays shoots and that was tough enough. We were laid back and low key, but I had too much ear protection on and had a hard time hearing their calls.

I too was a 15-16 yr. old trap loader back in the mid-70s, 73-74 I think, at the old Pasco trap club in Pasco WA. The club has long since gone.
I only did it for a couple of summers. For obvious reasons....
It was "THE" most THANKLESS job I have ever had. Not once did I ever get thanked for sitting in a HOT.... (by hot I mean, it was anywhere from 90-100+ deg.outside, your typical eastern WA summer. God only knows how hot it was inside that little oven they stuck us in.)... trap house, manually loading targets, If I screwed up, Oh! the ass chewing I took...Not once was I ever thanked for doing my job. But I do recall "ONE" kind shooter bought me a hot dog and a coke during lunch break. Was never told why.......Just, that I didn't need to buy my lunch that day.
That is why, to this day, If I am at a shoot that has manual pullers, loaders, scorers, what have you....... I will always "THANK" the shoot help. In person. Or... if I see one of the kids coming up to the counter for a lunch break......There money is no good....There lunch is on me.
This is in respect for the ONE shooter, who, made the kind jester, to me, back in the day and bought my lunch.

when I was 12,46 years ago, I was a caddy at a county club just out side of chicago. The members were well off: this was very exclusive club. The golfers would yell at us constantly, I guess it was their way of venting their frustrations, and lack of ability on the course. I got to see clubs hurled and putters wacked around trees - a great experience. I don't golf because of it, and it is probably why I'v taken up trap. If we want more young people to shoot, we need to set the example. Problems do occur and those should be delt with thru the proper channels. Yelling at the pullers cannot be tolerated.

Kurt:
I normally don't get involved when two adults are arguing. But, I make it my business when an adult starts chewing out a kid. No matter, what way you look at it, it's wrong in so many ways.
Steve

archangel:
Years ago my young son was a caddy at a private affluent golf club. One of the members was chewing out a caddy but good. I got involved and chewed his ass out, and the boss in charge of the caddies for looking the other way. I also called the kids father of the caddy who was being chewed out and let him also know what was going on. The father of the boy came immediately to the club and comfronted this jerk and this jerk's tail hung between his legs like a dog going to a vet.
Steve